Rail anchor



D. P. WOLHAUPTER RAIL ANCHOR ct 4, mm,

Filed Jan. 15, 1957 Patented Oct. 4, 1938 PATENT OFFICE RAIL ANCHOR David P. Wolhaupter, Washington, D. 0., assignmto Poor & Company, Chicago, IlL, a corporation of Delaware Application January 15, 1937, Serial No. 120,785

3 Claims.

This invention relates'to anchors for railway rails, and has particular reference to improvements in rail anchors of the one-piece type formed to be clampingly engaged with the base flange of 5 a rail, and to abut a side face of a cross tie or other stationary part of the roadbed to hold the rail against creeping longitudinally.

Prior rail anchors of the one-piece type may be divided intotwo main classes; namely, those of relatively light weight made from high grade steel, and those of relatively heavy weight made from lower grade steel. Both classes have certain advantages. For example, an anchor of the light weight type made from high grade steel is more resilient and consequently is more easily applied to a rail than an anchor of the heavy weight type. In addition, an anchor of the light weight type is not required to be formed with the high degree of accuracy required in the forming of an anchor of the heavy weight type. Moreover, an anchor of the light weight type can be formed with sharp bends which cannot be done as satisfactorily in an anchor of the heavy weight type. On the other hand, an anchor of the heavy weight type has the advantages that it exerts a more powerful grip on the rail than an anchor of the light weight type and is not so likely, as an anchor of the light weight type, to have its holding power grip impaired as a result of vertical components of forces produced by sidewise pressure of the anchor against a tie, or against frozen ballast, when the rail tends to creep longitudinally. I

One important object of the present invention is to provide a rail anchor of the one-piece type possessing the principal advantages of both classes of prior one-piece anchors; that is to say, to provide an anchor which may be made from lower grade steel but comparable in weight with light weight prior anchors made from high grade steel, which possesses all of the advantages of prior light weight anchors, and which, additionally, possesses the advantages of heavy weight prior anchors, anent providing and maintaining a powerful grip on the rail and being strongly resistant at its clamping jaw to vertical deflections tending to produce a permanent set of said jaw. Stated another way, the present construction provides for either a saving of metal without impairment of strength or increased strength without the addition of metal, as compared with prior anchors, whether the anchor is made from high grade or lower grade steel. In other words, if the present anchor is made from high grade steel it may be made of lesser weight than light Weight prior anchors and still will possess all of the advantages of light weight prior anchors, and if it is made from lower grade steel it may be made of lesser weight than heavy weight prior anchors and still will possess all of the advantages of heavy weight prior anchors. Alternatively, if it is made of the same weight as prior weight anchors of either high or lower grade steel, it will possess greater strength than the prior anchors. Thus, if it is made of lower grade steel and comparable in weight with light weight prior anchors, it possesses all of the principal advantages of both light weight and heavy weight prior anchors.

The invention is predicated upon a novel distribution of the metal of a rail anchor bar, either throughout its length or throughout only that portion of its length which is comprised by the loop or bight which connects its main body portion with its cooperating rail-flange engaging jaw.

However, regardless of whether the present novel metal distribution is confined to the loop or bight portion of the anchor, or is practiced throughout, the length of the anchor, important advantages of the present construction are: that it provides increased strength and stiffness for the loop or bight portion thereof; that it aliords striking or driving face spaced outwardly from the cross tie whereby its application to a rail is facilitated and the likelihood of the corners thereof being spalled or chipped during driving of the same upon a rail is reduced; that, in its manufacture, there will be less tendency to the formation of incipient cracks therein, particularly at its loop or bight portion, during shaping and quenching or cooling thereof, and that it aflords an increased bearing face area for cooperation with the side of a cross tie, assuming, of course, that in practice the anchor will, as usual, work into the tie.

To the end of attaining the foregoing and other objects and advantages, which will become more fully apparent as the nature of the invention is better understood, the same consists in the novel construction as will be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein like characters of reference denote corresponding parts in related views:-

Figure l is a side elevation of a rail anchor madein accordance with the present invention shown in its applied position to the base portion of a railway rail.

. Figures 2 and 3 are horizontal sectional views on the lines 9--ii and I'D-4E} respectively of Fig. 1.

Figure 4 is an end view of the new form of rail anchor shown applied to the flange of a rail base.

Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating the development of the cross-sectional shape of the metal bar from which the present anchor is formed indicating, by dotted lines, the relation of the new shape to a bar of rectangular cross-section and the vertices of the triangles which are eliminated to provide the truncated formation.

Referring to the drawing in detail, it will be observed that the present anchor is of a wellknown type formed from a single length or bar of spring steel, and that it comprises primarily a main body portion If! to underlie the base of a rail, a U-shaped clamping jaw II at one end of said body portion ID to receive and grip one of the rail flanges, and a locking shoulder l2 at the other end of said body portion I 0' to engage the edge of the other flange of the rail to retain the anchor in position on the rail.

While the anchor may be of any desired general shape, it is preferably of the type illustrated having the end portions I3, I3 of its main body portion l0 disposed in longitudinal alinement with each other and having its portion intermediate said end portions, bent or curved downwardly as indicated to afi'ord a wider tie engagement, one of the end portions l3 being provided with the aforementioned locking shoulder l2 which extends upwardly from the outer end of said end portion. The other end portion [3 comprises the lower member of the aforementioned U-shaped clamping jaw II, the upper jaw member l5 of which is formed by bending a continuation of the last mentioned end portion l3 upwardly and inwardly into superimposed, spaced relationship to said end portion. This type of anchor is the well known Fair Anchor.

In accordance with the present invention, it is intended that the loop or bight of the jaw ll shall have a deeper cross-sectional dimension longitudinally of the anchor than transversely thereof, and yet the amount of metal comprised in said loop, considering the same cross sectionally, is not greater than would be comprised therein if said loop were of rectangular crosssection in accordance with prior common practice and equal in thickness to the present loop. The consequence is that, as compared with the jaw members of a prior anchor connected, by a cross-sectionally rectangular loop of any given width or depth, the jaw members of the present anchor may be connected by a loop, of the same cross-sectional area as the undeformed loop of the prior anchor, have a stronger grip and are more resistant to being spread apart and/or set by the vertical component of forces produced by sidewise pressure of the anchor against a cross tie T or against frozen ballast when the rail R tends to creep longitudinally. Yet, as aforesaid, there may be involved in the loop of the present anchor any greater sectional area of metal than in the sectionally rectangular loop of the prior anchor.

In the present invention the novel cross sectional elongation of the ban from which the anchor is formed, or deepening of the loop is effected, without adding metal thereto or in any way weakening the loop, by, in effect, removing metal from the corners of the bar, where it is of little or no value, and redistributing it into the projecting inner and the outer portions of the loop. This is best illustrated in Fig. 5 of the drawing, from which figure it will be noted that,

.as compared with a sectionally rectangular bar (a, in dotted lines) comprises the metal of its corners or displaced, as indicated at IT, and worked into the inner and the outer tapering portions as indicated at I8. This may conveniently be done by an initial forging or rolling operation.

The precise final sectional shape of the loop portion of the anchor may vary so long as the original thickness of the bar is preserved medially of the loop and so long as the displaced corner metal is distributed into the inner and the outer projecting portions I8 of the bar to obtain the increased moment of inertia value in the loop. However, a symmetrical final sectional shape of the bar is preferred, and this shape may be as shown in Fig. 5. That is to say, the inner and the outer portions of the loop, considering the same crosssectionally, may have the form of oppositely disposed or back-to-back trapezoids, or, in other words, the inner and the outer portions of the loop may have their side faces equally converged toward the inner and the outer edges of the loop from points spaced equal distances from the middle of the loop as viewed from the side.

It is preferred that the original bar, throughout its length, shall have the new sectional shape of the finished anchor. In fact, it is desirable to form the anchor from a bar which, throughout its length, is of the desired cross sectional shape 1 of the loop of the finished anchor.

In bending a bar to form a loop such as the loop if, there usually occurs a stretching of the metal at the outer side of the loop and a compression or concentration of metal at the inner side of the loop. Therefore, in order to assure that the inner and the outer portions of the finished loop shall be substantially reversed symmetrical duplicates of each other in sectional shape, it is preferable to provide, before the bending operation, a greater amount of taper in that side portion of the original bar which is to comprise the inner side portion of the loop than in that side portion of the bar which is to comprise the outer side portion of the loop. By so doing, the stretching and the compression of the metal respectively at the outer and the inner portions of the loop, during forming thereof, will result in said portions, in the finished loop, being substantially reversed sectional duplicates of each other. However, so long as that portion of the bar which is to be bent to form the loop has a cross-sectional shape of the general character illustrated in Fig. 5 a great advantage is that in the forming of the loop the likelihood of incipient cracks occurring in the loop, particularly at the inner side thereof, is greatly reduced, due to the freedom with which the metal may fiow into the voids provided by the tapered sides of the bar.

Figures 1 and 2 of the drawing are illustrative of some of the more important advantages of the present anchor as compared with prior anchors. First, of course, there is the advantage of increased strength in the loop, so that when the jaw II is driven onto one of the rail flanges l2 as illustrated in Fig. 1, until the lug I2 snaps behind the edge of the other rail flanges and thereby retains the anchor on the rail, it grips the rail more powerfully than prior anchors and any likelihood of the jaw members l3 and I5 being strained apart to a permanent set in any manner is correspondingly reduced. In addition, there is the advantage of the increased bearing area afforded by the loop for cooperation with the side of the tie, since, in practice, the side of the loop works into the tie until eventually the entire side face of the loop engages the tie. Moreover, there is the advantage, when the anchor initially is applied to the rail, that the outer rounded edge of the loop I6 is held spaced from the tie whereby it may easily be struck a solid blow with a hammer and whereby the danger of striking the same a glancing blow with consequent spalling or chipping of the corners of the loop is correspondingly reduced.

As heretofore described bar is bent to provide a body portion ID, a jaw II and a locking shoulder l2. In addition, in order to provide bearing 01' contact faces substantially the full width of the bar at the points where the members l3 and I5 of the clamping jaw i! and the member I3 adjacent to the locking shoulder l2 engage the rail flange, the bar at these points may be flattened and widened, as indicated at a, b and 0, respectively.

It is known that by cutting off the vertex as d in Fig. 5 of a triangular beam at a definite depth, a trapezoidal section can be formed whose maximum strength will be greater than the strength of the original triangular section and such a section is known as the paradox beam. In cross section, either substantially throughout its length, or at least in the loop or bight portion thereof, the present anchor comprises, in effect, two oppositely disposed, truncated triangular sections. Therefore, it is of greater strength than if said sections were of true triangular shape. Moreover, due to the increased depth of the bar of the present anchor, particularly in the loop or bight of the anchor, as compared with a rectangular bar having the same sectional area of metal, the present anchor obviously is of materially greater strength, in gripping and holding power. It thus follows that the present anchor may be made considerably lighter than prior anchors made from bars of rectangular cross section and with a consequent material saving in cost, without sacrificing strength; or, alternatively, that increased strength is obtained without the use of more metal than has heretofore been used in anchors made from bars of rectangular cross section. In this connection, Fig. 5 of the drawing illustrates the present sectional shape as compared with a rectangular section of the same area and as compared with a section comprising, in effect, two truly triangular sections disposed in opposed relationship. It is upon this plan of metal distribution that the present invention is based.

I claim:-

1. A rail anchor formed from a metal bar of truncated triangular form both above and below its horizontal-axis with an intervening portion of rectangular cross-section, said bar being of greater depth vertically than horizontally and provided at one end with a resilient rail gripping jaw and at its opposite end with rail engaging retaining means, said rectangular portion of the bar providing side fiat tie engaging faces, the edge portion of the rail engaging truncated triangular part of the bar being provided with laterally widened rail bearing faces at the locations of the bar which engage the rail, said bar. being otherwise of uniform cross-section throughout its length.

2. A rail anchor formed from a metal bar of a tapering and narrowed formation both above and below its horizontal axis with an intervening portion of rectangular cross-section, said bar being of greater depth vertically than horizontally and provided at one end with a resilient rail gripping jaw and its opposite end with rail engaging retaining means, said rectangular portion providing side flat tie engaging faces, the edge portion of the rail engaging narrowed part of the bar being provided with laterally widened rail bearing faces at the locations of the bar which engage the rail, said bar being otherwise of uniform cross-section throughout its length.

3. A rail anchor formed from a metal bar of truncated triangular form both above and below its horizontal axis with an intervening portion of rectangular cross-section and of uniform crosssection throughout its length, said bar being of greater depth vertically than horizontally and provided at one end with a resilient rail gripping jaw and at its opposite end with rail engaging retaining means, said rectangular portion of the bar providing side fiat tieengaging faces, and the inside edge portion of the inner truncated triangular part of the bar providing flat rail engaging faces.

DAVID P. WOLHAUPTER. 

